Studies on the synthetic and structural aspects of benzosuberones bearing 2, 4-thiazolidenone moiety as potential anti-cancer agents

•Synthesized novel building blocks of benzosuberone bearing 2, 4-thiazolidenone.•Evaluated cytotoxicity against A549, HeLa, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines.•Compound 6a Exhibited promising cytotoxicity.•6b and 6f are selectively shown potent activity against the He La and MDA-MB-231 cell line respectively.

Novel representative of the important group of biologically active benzosuberones bearing 2, 4-thiazolidenone moiety was synthesized as potential anticancer agents (6a–j). These compounds were synthesized in good yields from Knoevenagel condensation of compounds 2a–b with thiazolidenone derivatives 3a–e in the presence of sodium acetate and glacial acetic acid. The in vitro cytotoxicity of these compounds was evaluated against different human cancer cell lines (A549, HeLa, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7) and normal cell line, HEK293. Compound 6a exhibited promising cytotoxicity with IC50 values ranging from 2.98 to 13.34 μM against all the tested cancer cell lines, HeLa, A549, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, while compound 6g showed potent cytotoxicity against human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7, IC50 value of 1.91 μM).

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide